


oh the world is your snowball (see how it grows)

by peacefulboo



Series: Heart's at the Wheel [3]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 18:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefulboo/pseuds/peacefulboo
Summary: It's Scott's first Christmas with his daughter. He's gonna do it right.





	oh the world is your snowball (see how it grows)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to C & D for the encouragement and extra eyes. Lord knows this needed it. 
> 
> Note: This is set in the same 'verse as My Heart's at the Wheel Now and is technically during the sequel that has yet to be published. It's pure candy fluff (the title is from the song Marshmallow World, so there's that). Let me know if you enjoy it! Happy Holidays, which ever you may celebrate, and for those who don't celebrate, may you thrive this winter despite the shorter days and colder temps in the northern hemisphere and the longer days and oppressive heat in the southern. Merry Happy, y'all!

Scott knows, really and truly knows, that at just a little over one, Kaela is not going to remember his first Christmas with her. She’s also not going to remember that he wasn’t there for her first Christmas last year. 

He’s a rational human being who knows how this shit works; Kaela may not know but that doesn’t mean that Scott doesn’t know or remember these things. During his daughter’s first Christmas he was in Calgary with Danny and his kids. And she wasn’t his daughter yet. Not really. He was like a very consistently present uncle back then, though he’s glad now that he never had that title either. He missed her and Tess like crazy while he was gone, and he was beyond ready to get back to London and those girls, but he hadn’t even admitted to himself, much less Tessa, that he’d wanted to be a part of their family. He can even admit that as much as he’d missed them and wanted to get back home, he had been able to enjoy the extra sleep and diminished responsibility. He’d enjoyed hanging out with Danny’s daughter, who could run around and loved to wrestle and dance like mad and had a huge personality that couldn’t be ignored. He had a blast watching her tear through her gifts and build snowmen and make snow angels. 

And even though he was completely wrapped around the finger of another little baby back home he didn’t even dare to dream that he’d be able to call her his kid in a year’s time. 

But she is. This Christmas, he’s her dad. She hasn’t called him that, and they only decided a couple of months ago that he would officially get that title, but he’s responsible for the toys from Santa and making sure she’s fed and happy and has a insanely fun day. And he’s the one that gets to do the dad thing by falling asleep in the middle of the living room floor, only to find her snuggled up against his back, like Danny and his niece did last year. 

 

It’s with all of this anticipation in mind, that Scott slides out of bed before the first light of dawn. Now that Kaela’s mostly weaned, he takes the first shift with her most days. She sleeps later than a lot of babies do, and he has a feeling her typical early rising will peter out more and more as she grows, but for now, he tends to be the one to get her up and changed and ready for the day as they let her mama sleep in a little later. 

She’s laying in her crib doing that whisper-singing that she does these days. The girl loves music and dancing, but everything she does is quiet and little and contained. He smiles at her through the cracked-open door as she sings her sweet version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which essentially involves her mumbling through garbled versions of the title and “Yippee!” in a sweet, if occasionally maddening loop. 

The door creaks a little as he pushes it open so he can slip inside and he hears Kaela’s quick gasp and smiles as her head pops up over the bumper. 

“Were you singing, buddy?” he asks as he steps up to her crib and runs his hand over her soft curls. 

“Yippee!” she answers with a nod as she reaches beside her to grab her stuffed Rudolph and holds it up to him. 

“Yeah, that’s Rudolph,” Scott replies as he reaches down to pull Kaela, and Rudolph, into his arms. She immediately relaxes as she settles in his hold, sighing as she burrows into his comforting warmth. 

Scott chuckles and kisses her hair, letting her get a little cuddle time in like every morning. He moves over to sit in the glider and rocks her a little. They stay quiet for a few minutes, but Scott has to cut it shorter than he normally would since they have such a big day ahead of them. 

“Hey buddy, do you know what today is?” he asks her. 

Kaela just looks up at him, eyes wide and patient. 

Scott blows a raspberry on her cheek then, an impulse he gives into regularly. Her sleep-flushed cheeks, so stinkin’ round and cheerful, are hard to resist. Even more irresistible is the huge laugh that comes up from her chest and leaps from her mouth. It’s the best sound in the world. If everything else Kaela does is little and dainty and restrained, her laugh is anything but. 

“Merry Christmas, baby,” he tells her when she settles back down in his lap. 

It’s the most adorable thing when she tries to say it back, her attempt at Christmas still pretty much just a series of S’s. 

“Yeah. Merry Christmas,” he repeats. “I got you some special pjs that your mama is gonna love so we gotta get you changed and cleaned up so we can go wake her up and tell her what day it is!” he tells her with eyes wide as he bounces her up and down in his lap. 

She chuckles this time and Scott’s pretty sure he’ll never get over a one-year-old who chuckles. 

As always, they talk as he changes her out of her cozy pajamas and gets her into a clean diaper and into her outfit for their quiet morning celebrations between just the three of them. He knows what most of her whispered words mean these days, though more and more of them are being added to her vocabulary by the second. He has to teasingly tug her fingers out of her mouth a few times as she mumbles around them, once pretending to eat them himself, which just gets him a scrunchy face in return as she shakes her head back and forth. 

She trusts him fully and has no fear when he’s around. Her fingers are safe with him so she simply goes through the motion of the game he’s been playing with her as they try and break her of the habit. 

Scott flies her down to the floor once he’s grabbed her holiday pjs from where he’d hidden them the night before and they sing parts of “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman”, like they’ve done a hundred times over the last few weeks. He doesn’t even mind singing just the words, “Frosty the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul,” over and over again since Kaela doesn’t know any of the other words and always tugs him back to that line. 

Once she’s in her little pjs, he detours into the guest room to grab one quick thing and then he’s looking down at his kid in his arms and asks, “Ready to go get Mama?” he asks. 

“Ready,” she answers with a little nod that he matches. She almost even says the ‘d’. Almost. 

“We gotta tell her, ‘Merry Christmas, Mama!’ and then hug her super tight and give her so many kisses, okay?” He tells her before they head in. 

Kaela gives him a skeptical look and asks, “Soft?” 

Scott shakes his head and has to press a kiss to her temple, “Not today, sweet girl. Today is Christmas and you can be as loud as you want,” he tells her. He’s had her trained to wake Tessa up with cuddles and whispers and gentle kisses, so he understands why she’s a little reluctant. It helps that even her most enthusiastic greetings tend to be chill compared to his nieces and nephews. 

Still, when he sets her down on the bed, Kaela gently crawls over to her mama, who is curled up under a mound of blankets, her eyes squeezed shut in a way that lets Scott know she’s mostly awake already and playing asleep for the sake of their kid, and damn if that doesn’t make him love her just a little more. Kaela scoots up so she’s able to kneel right in front of her mother’s face, and then places a soft, but wet, kiss to her mom’s cheek. Or tries to. She mostly gets her nose. 

“Christmas,” she tells her mama as she holds her cheek. “Mama, Christmas!” she says a little louder and with a touch more enthusiasm. 

Tessa opens her eyes quick and puts on a surprised face. “Christmas?!” she exclaims with a sleep deepened voice. “Is it really Christmas, Kaela Joy?” 

Kaela, seeing her mom’s enthusiasm, sits back on her haunches and nods enthusiastically. Which causes the bell on her hat to jingle around a little. 

Tessa gasps and then laughs a little as she looks up at Scott with glee. Her eyes go even wider when she sees he’s wearing a Santa hat along with his white t-shirt and red and black flannel pajama bottoms. She quickly turns her attention back to her daughter, though. “Wait! Are you Kaela Joy or are you one of Santa’s elves?!” she asks, tugging on the drooping jingle bell of her daughter’s elf hat. 

Scott had bought the green elf pajamas in secret - or rather, he’d had his mother order them and keep them at her house until she snuck them into their trunk last night during their Christmas Eve gathering. He knows that Kaela already has Christmas-y pjs that she’s been wearing all season, red ones with candy canes and grey ones with reindeer and blue ones with snowflakes and sparkles, but when he’d seen the elf ones that were essentially a little costume, he could see this moment so clearly and he figured, why not. 

“It me, Mama!” Kaela says as she takes her mom’s face in her hands and gets super close to her face as if that will help Tessa see her better. They’ve played this game countless times and Kaela knows the drill now. 

“It is you! My little Kaela-elf!” she says as she covers her daughter in kisses.

Kaela dissolves into her belly laugh again, Scott is pretty sure he turns into a pile of useless goo when Tessa joins in. There is, hands down, nothing better in the world than what’s happening in front of him in this moment. 

As his two girls settle down from their giggle fit, Kaela lays her head on her pillow next to her mom and he lays down on his side next to them and watches them have the conversation they have most mornings. 

“Today we are going to eat breakfast with daddy and fill that tummy of yours so you get to stay big and strong,” Tessa tells her as she places a hand on Kaela’s belly and then on her bicep. “And then we’re going to do fun things like open presents and play in the snow, and run around with your cousins, and read a book or two so you can learn more about who you are and what you like to do and maybe what you don’t like to do,” Tessa says as she places her hand over Kaela’s heart. “Today you will get some rest so you can grow, grow, grow,” she says, as she walks her fingers from Kaela’s toes to her the tip of her head. “Today you will do hard things, and learn new things, and make all sorts of choices. You will fall and you will get back up. Even if mama or daddy have to help you. You will be you, Kaela Joy. And being you is the best thing you will do all day.” As she says the last bit, Scott watches as she holds Kaela’s face in her hands and Kaela holds Tess’s face in hers, and presents her cheek for the kiss she knows is coming, because it’s come every day for the last three months. Maybe it doesn’t always come first thing in the morning, maybe it doesn’t follow these exact words, but every day since Kaela has started to really form words, Tessa has taken the time to have this conversation with her daughter. 

She’s such a good mother. 

“I love you, Kaela Joy,” Tessa tells her as she kisses her other cheek. 

“Love, Mama,” Kaela tells her as she kisses her mom’s chin. And then she touches her own chest and says, “Love Kay-Jo.”

Tessa smiles back at her and says “I’m so glad, Kaela Joy!”

Scott lets them have a few moments of snuggle time before interrupting in a low voice. “Time for food before my buddy turns into a hungry bear.”

Kaela turns to him then and grabs her belly for a second before saying, “Hungry Kay-Jo, no hungry bear.”

“We better hurry, then,” Scott tells her as sits up and holds out his arms to her. She sits up quick and scrambles into his arms and then clings to him as tight as her little limbs can as he spins her around without holding on for a couple of turns before tucking one of his arms under butt in case she decides to let go. As a family they head downstairs. Breakfast is simple; just scrambled eggs and toast since they know that there will be sweets and left overs from the night before and Kaela’s a bit of a picky eater at this point. 

As Tessa cleans Kaela and her high chair up she prompts Kaela with, “Say thank you to Daddy for the delicious food!”

“Thanks!” she says in his direction with a cheesy grin that’s all teeth. 

“You’re welcome, buddy. You did a good job eating all your food!” 

“Yeah,” she agrees with a nod. 

Scott laughs at how assured she is. Tessa lifts Kaela out of her high chair and the toddler, who is finally walking, though she still will often crawl instead, toddles over to the corner of the tv room where her balls and dolls and blocks are. Before Tessa can follow after her, Scott takes her by the hand and pulls her into a hug. He feels her deep sigh as she relaxes against him and pulls her arms up to hug him back. 

“Merry Christmas, T,” he murmurs into her hair. 

“Merry Christmas,” she replies as she leans up for a good morning, even though it’s after breakfast, kiss. 

They pull apart after a few moments, ready to introduce Kaela to more Christmas delights. She gets to open presents, though unsurprisingly, the wrapping is more distracting than the simple toys inside. After presents, and a snack, they bundle up and go outside to play in the snow for a bit. It’s a frigid day so they only stay outside long enough to make a little snowman and run around a bit, but Kaela is shivering by the time they head back inside, despite how many layers she’s had on or how much fun she’s been having. 

Her teeth are chattering enough that they decide she’ll need a warm bath and some serious snuggle time before lunch. 

“Are you so cold, Kaela-girl?” Scott asks as he and Tessa tag team to get her out of her outdoor gear and into the warm bath. 

“So cold,” Kaela nods, her chin still quivering. 

“Did you have so much fun making the snowman?”

“So fun!” she repeats and then shivers again, “Cold.”

“I know buddy,” Scott tells her. “You’ll be warm in just a second.”

“‘Kay,” she replies with a bit of a sniff. 

“Can you tell Daddy about being outside,” Tessa asks her. 

Kaela chatters away in response, and they keep her in the bath only as long as it stays warm and then dry her off quickly. Tessa dries her hair with a hair dryer even though her curls end up a little frizzy. They all head downstairs to the tv room and cuddle up on the couch to watch Elf. Or Scott and Tessa watch Elf while Kaela naps, tucked in between them with her head on her mom’s lap. 

They have lunch at the Virtues, letting the girls play together for an hour or so, before heading over to the Moirs for leftovers and Christmas treats and they let Kaela have a small cookie but do their best to stand strong against the pout when they tell her that’s enough. Throughout the afternoon, Scott notices that more than usual, Tessa has been prompting Kaela to tell Daddy thank you, or throw the ball to Daddy, or to cuddle close to Daddy since he’s so warm. It’s not unusual, so much, as more often than normal. All the adults in Kaela’s life have been calling him Daddy or Dad around her since her birthday, but there’s a deliberate frequency to it today that makes Scott think that Tessa is trying to accomplish something specific. 

After a couple of hours at the Moirs, Scott can tell that Kaela, while she’s obviously been having fun, laughing up a storm and playing with her cousins, has had about all she can take of all the excitement and noise. They pack up and say goodbye before she melts down and call it a win. 

They give her some time to decompress in the quiet of the living room, where she idly plays with her new toys on the ground in front of the couch. Scott has been resting with his head in Tessa’s lap, idly tracing a seam of her leggings when it hits him. He looks up at her and smiles. “You wanted her to say it today, huh,” he says. 

Tessa scrunches her nose as she looks down at him and shrugs. “She has so many words and that’s usually one of the first ones. I figured she’d have figured it out by now, so why not today?” She gives him a sad half smile and Scott smiles back up at her as he laces their fingers together. 

Tessa runs her other hand through his hair and he closes his eyes as he tells her, “She had to switch mid-stream. She’ll get there when she gets there. Her not calling me Daddy doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel it. To her, Scott means the same as Daddy means to us.”

“I know,” Tessa replies with a sigh. “But she’s not even calling you by your name.”

He had noticed that, too. She doesn’t call him anything. Tessa is Mama, his mom is Gramma (or Ma), Kate is Nana and his dad is Pop, but he doesn’t have a name yet. If she wants his attention she just starts chattering at him, or will go up to him and grab his hand, or pat him on the leg. 

“She’s still so little, Tess,” Scott tells her as he opens his eyes squeezes her hand in reassurance. “She has her whole life to call me whatever she wants.”

“Okay,” Tessa agrees with a resigned nod. Scott cant help but lean up a little and beckon her down to kiss him. She laughs into the kiss and he figures she’s trying to shrug off how bummed she is about not getting her Christmas wish. 

Kaela yawns from where she’s playing with her stuffed animals and, like the excellent sleeper she is, she crawls over to where Scott and Tessa are, pulls herself up so she’s standing at his head, and then lays her head down next to his and closes her eyes for a second. 

“You sleepy, buddy?” Scott asks through a soft laugh. 

“Sleepy buddy,” she replies, slurring through even more consonants than usual. 

Scott leans over to kiss her head and then sits up. 

“Okay. Let’s go to bed,” he says as he picks her up and heads to her room, Tessa following close behind. 

She’s already in her pajamas so Tessa makes sure she’s got a clean diaper before tucking her in with her blanket and her current favorite stuffed animal, Rudolph. Kaela’s drifting off before she’s fully tucked in and with her hand on her daughter’s back, Tessa whispers, “Mama loves you, sweet girl.”

Kaela whispers back, “Love Mama,” on an exhale. 

Scott puts his hand on her back next and tells her, “Daddy loves you, buddy. Sweet dreams.”

“Love dreams Daddy,” she tries to repeat back to him before her eyes fully shut and she drifts off. 

And damn it if he does start tearing up right then and there. He rubs her back one more time and then he and Tessa leave the room.


End file.
